In Your World
by anni
Summary: A prank by Nathan's friends puts him more in Lucas's, and by default, Haley's lives than he ever dreamed of - NH
1. Default Chapter

**Title:**  In Your World

**Author:**  Anni

**Email:  **asleeper@email.arizona.edu

**Rating**:  PG-13 for language and eventual sexual situations

**Summary:**  A prank played by Nathan's friends finds him more in Lucas's, and by default, Haley's lives than he could have ever dreamed of.

**Notes:  **This takes place after Crash Into You, except Lucas never found Haley's hat and he still has no clue that she's tutoring Nathan.

**Another Note:**  I suck at titles, so this one is subject to change should something else hit my fancy.  This is a Nathan/Haley fic, but there will be quite a bit of interaction between other characters and pairings.  I'm going to try to be consistent with my updates so that I can have the story finished by the end of my Christmas break in one month, but I wouldn't hold my breath about that.  I work 40 hours a week and I'm not very disciplined when it comes to writing.  And I think that's about it for now.  I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter One:**

Haley closed her textbook with a thump and looked across the table at Nathan expectantly.  "So, you're gonna ace this math quiz, aren't ya?"

"Well, I wouldn't go that far."  He smiled as he slid his things back into his backpack.  "But I'm confident on the whole not flunking front."

"Not flunking?  I'll take that."  Haley felt a soft warmth pool in her belly at his slight laugh.  She lingered at their table on the docks for a moment longer, not wanting their morning tutoring session to end.

It was weird.  It had been two weeks since that party at his beach house, and after hearing about his accident in Peyton's car, Haley had tried even harder to steel herself against his charms, but it really wasn't working.  There was just something about Nathan that seemed to be worming it's way into her heart.

And that wasn't a good thing.

She knew that there was nothing good in this world that could come from her developing crush on her best friend's worst enemy of a little brother.  Lucas would be hurt, and it was a big enough betrayal for her to be tutoring Nathan behind his back in the first place, even if she was doing it for him.  She didn't know that Lucas could ever forgive her if it went any further than that.

And then there was Nathan.  She watched as he stood from the table and held out his hand to pull her to her feet.  A few weeks ago, Haley would have ignored the gesture, but as his fingers wrapped around hers, she felt a tiny jolt of electricity shoot up her spine.

Mentally chiding herself, Haley realized that Nathan probably had that effect on a lot of girls, and the problem with him was that he knew it and he loved it.  Even if there wasn't a Lucas and there wasn't a Peyton, whom he was still struggling to get over, she knew that she would just end up getting hurt.  

Because despite all of the good things she had learned about him over the past month of tutoring, for better or for worse, Nathan Scott was a heartbreaker.

Haley dropped his hand, immediately losing his warmth to the chilly fall morning.  She tried to keep her face straight and hoped that he would just attribute the red in her cheeks to the frosty air.

Nathan smiled down at her as they ambled slowly toward his truck, his voice pulling her from her thoughts.  "So, are you coming to the game tonight?"

"Oh, yeah.  Of course."  Her heart skipped a beat at the small smirk that he shot her way.  "Yeah, Luke was telling me that Williams is a pretty good team, so it should be a fun game.  He seems to really be gelling with the team lately."

The smile wavered on Nathan's face at Lucas's name.  "Right," he answered her.  

Throughout their weeks of tutoring, Haley had pretty much avoided talking about Lucas around him, and Nathan liked it that way.  He tried to remind himself that his bastard brother was the entire reason he was hanging around Haley in the first place, but the more he got to know her, the more he wanted to forget that Lucas had her first.

Things were just so screwed up lately, from the fact that Lucas was in his life in the first place to the way that his dad was riding him even harder than normal because of it.  Then, there was his mom, still pissed off about the whole car wreck thing, who had the sudden desire to be very best friends with him.  And, to top that off, he and Peyton should have already been back together, but she seemed intent on avoiding his calls and spending her spare time with Lucas.

Lucas: the alpha and omega of all his problems.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye to find that the smile had dropped off her face as well.  It was just that, with all that was going on, his mornings with Haley had become his one real escape.  When he was with her, he was able to forget, even if it was just for an hour, and some stupid voice in the back of his head had him wishing that things were different and she was on his side instead of Lucas's.

"But you know," she started, looking up at him with those big eyes as if she knew on some level that he was hurt.  "I like watching you play, too."

Nathan almost laughed as her face flooded with color, the blush spreading across her cheeks and around to the tips of her ears.  It was lame, but just that one little thing made him happy.  "Well, of course.  Everybody likes watching me play."

Her embarrassed smile spread into a wide grin and she rolled her eyes.  "Not at all full of yourself, are you?"

He stopped beside the door to his truck and looked down at her.  "What can I say?  I'm a truth teller."

"That'll be the day," she scoffed back playfully.

He laughed as he opened his door and gestured inside.  "Do you want a ride?"  He asked her that same question every morning, and always got the same answer.  "I could drop you off a few blocks from school."

Haley shook her head and took at step back.  "That's alright.  I'm meeting Lu- I mean, I like the walk."  She gave him a little wave as she turned away.  "Good luck with the game tonight."

Nathan watched as she walked along the dock and towards the street, not looking back at him once.  Shaking his head, he took a deep breath and hopped into his car.

******************

Nathan lay on his bed, tossing a baseball up into the air and waiting for his mother to finally go to bed.  Her decision to become more of a stay at home mom had come complete with a midnight curfew for him, just another way that she had become a thorn in his side of late.

The game against Williams had been one of his best games of the season, having scored 37 points to Lucas's 16.  His dad had been happy, hell, even Whitey had congratulated him on it, and now, that adrenaline rush was still lingering in his veins and giving him the intense need to get out of the house.

The light streaking through the cracks of his doorway flickered off and Nathan could hear his mom as she headed to her room to go to bed.  He knew that it would be just another fifteen minutes or so before she would be asleep and he would be free to release this pent up energy.

Of course, at nearly 12:30, the guys were probably already drunk and out causing problems.  He would most likely be able to only catch the tail end of whatever they were doing, but whatever it was, it was okay with him.  He needed something to take away the agitation boiling in the pit of his stomach.

Yes, the game had been good.  He had outscored, outrebounded, and just outplayed Lucas all together.  But, after the game, he had watched as the lanky blond boy was surrounded by his mother and uncle, and then taken into a giant bear hug by Haley.  And, as Nathan climbed into his truck to head home, he had seen Lucas leaning against Peyton's convertible, the two lost in their conversation.

Why was it that every time he thought he had Lucas beat, his brother would sweep the rug out from underneath his feet again?  It didn't matter what he did, it always felt like Lucas had the upper hand, and despite whatever agreement Nathan had made with Haley, at that moment, he would have done anything to get a step up.

Nathan was pulled from his thoughts as his phone began to vibrate in its place on his nightstand.

"What up, dawg?"

Nathan rolled his eyes at the voice of his best friend, Tim.  "Where you guys at?  My mom just went to bed."

"Dude," Tim answered, the excitement heavy in his slightly slurred words.  "You have got to get your sorry ass out here now.  We're over at River and Duncan."

River and Duncan?  Nathan scanned his memory trying to figure out what they would be doing in the center of town on a Friday night, especially when Tim was obviously drinking.  "What're you guys doing there?"

"We just figured that it was time someone else participated in the battle against the bastard spawn, so hurry up."

The phone clicked as Tim hung up, and Nathan felt the smile spread across his face as he swung his legs over the side of his bed and stood up.  The battle against the bastard spawn?  That was definitely something he could get behind right then.

***************

Nathan pulled up to the curb on the corner of River and Duncan to find the street deserted.  The anticipation that had had him pushing a little harder than normal on the gas petal on the way over melted into apprehension at the absolute quiet surrounding him.  Stepping out of his car, that apprehension dropped like a ton of rocks into the pit of his stomach as he realized he was parked in front of Karen's Café.

"Crap."

The lights in the small restaurant were all shut off, but by the glow of the streetlamp, Nathan could see that the window of the front door had been broken out.  The glass crunched beneath his boots as walked up to the entrance and stepped through into the large room.

Had he been out drinking with his friends that night, Nathan was sure that the sight before him would have made him laugh.  He would be able to keep that famous smirk on his lips as he said that Lucas finally got what he deserved.  

However, he was dead sober, and as the vision of broken chairs, overturned tables, and spray painted walls really began to set in, all he could picture was the tiny dark haired woman that always sat beside his Uncle Keith at the basketball games.  This wasn't about Lucas.

Gently toeing one still upright chair, Nathan jumped when it came crashing down, the sound echoing much louder than it should have in the silent night.  This was bad.  This was very bad.  He needed to get out of there.

No sooner than the echo of the chair died down, another sound bounced around the café sending shivers down his spine.

"Don't move!"

A bright light flashed at him, and Nathan turned slowly to stare at the police office shining the flashlight.  The man stepped over the broken glass and across the threshold to stand before him.

"Crap."

Stay tuned to see Haley's reaction to this turn of events….


	2. Chapter 2

First off, thanks so much for the reviews. They made me feel very pretty. Secondly, my soon to be brother-in-law, a cop, tried to explain the legal aspects of something like this, but he pretty much just confused me, so, I hope it makes sense!  
  
Chapter Two  
  
Nathan opened his locker and stared blankly at the stack of books inside. Only two periods in, and his Monday was already sucking royally.  
  
The weekend was supposed to be a respite from all of the hassles of being a high school student: hanging out with his friends, getting drunk, partying. Instead, he had been confined to his room, and this time, his mother checked on him every half hour just to make sure he was still there.  
  
Friday night had gone by in a blur. It hadn't taken long for the officer to realize who he was, and so, the necessary phone calls were made. His parents came down, soon to be joined by the police chief, who had just a few months earlier received a great deal on a new Porsche. He had been questioned by a number of officers, but after one short conversation with his Dad, it had been concluded that Nathan's story was true. He really was only passing by. There just wasn't enough evidence to pin it all on him.  
  
Nathan could remember their faces, though, and not a one of them really believed that. Not the police chief, not his dad, not his mom, and definitely not Karen Roe.  
  
He had watched her arrive, her face frozen in a sort of unbelieving terror, and for one short moment, his eyes caught hers. Nathan had looked away quickly, focusing instead on the anger written in his brother's face. He'd found a small satisfaction in the clenching of Lucas's jaw, but he didn't have it in him to wallow in that just then.  
  
"Hey, man."  
  
Nathan pulled his gaze away from his locker to focus on his friend. "What do you want, Tim?"  
  
Tim seemed to measure his words carefully as he looked up at the much larger boy. "I'm sorry. you know."  
  
"Whatever." Nathan shook his head, grabbed his math book, and slammed his locker shut.  
  
"It's just my stupid bitch of a step-mom. You know she's just looking for reasons to ship me off to military school." Tim tried to gauge his reaction, but got nothing. He really did feel bad about the fact that his best friend had taken the fall, but it wasn't like Nathan would get into any real trouble for it. Nathan never got into any trouble for the stunts he pulled. It was usually the rest of them taking the blame for things he started.  
  
Nathan turned to walk away, but stopped at the sight of Haley, who, as the warning bell was ringing through the hall, seemed to be headed toward the tutoring center. With his parents yelling at him and then fighting with each other the last two days, he hadn't even registered how the events would affect her, so he hadn't been prepared when she didn't show up at the docks that morning.  
  
"Nathan?"  
  
"Look, whatever, Tim. I have to go." Nathan dismissed him without a second glance as he headed down the hall in the opposite direction of his math class, weaving through the few remaining students still loitering in the hallway.  
  
The last bell sounded and the pathways around him emptied as he stopped in front of the tutoring center. Looking through the small glass window, Nathan saw that the room was vacant save for Haley. She was hunched over a book and was taking notes, oblivious to the fact that she was being stared at.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Nathan tried to steel himself for the upcoming conversation. He knew that she couldn't possibly be happy with him, but he would explain. It would be okay.  
  
Haley looked up as the door squeaked open, but one look at who it was had her rolling her eyes and turning back to her homework. She knew that he would show up eventually, but she'd figured that even he would have the good grace to give her some time to cool down.  
  
She hadn't believed it when Lucas called her up to tell her what happen. She thought for sure that it was a misunderstanding. It had to be. The boy that had smiled and held her hand as he helped her up from her seat that morning could not possibly have done something like Lucas described.  
  
But then, Haley saw it with her own eyes. The little café that she spent more hours in than she did her own home, it's homey insides gutted and ruined.  
  
She refused to look up as he came closer.  
  
Nathan could see the anger in her expression, though he was sure that she was trying to put on her poker face. Haley was too much emotion to have a poker face, though, so he could see the hurt, too. This explaining thing was probably going to take more effort than he originally thought.  
  
He cleared his throat, trying to gain her attention. "You missed tutoring this morning."  
  
Her head tilted and he thought for a moment that she would look at him, but her attention stayed on her book. "I didn't miss it."  
  
Nathan stopped, leaning against the table near her arm as he calculated how to play the situation. "What does that mean?"  
  
"We had a deal, Nathan. You broke it, so now, there's no deal."  
  
Her voice was as cold as he had heard it since that first day he came to ask for her help. But, with the hell that was still sure to rain down on him over this entire mess, Nathan realized that he wasn't prepared to lose Haley over it too. He wasn't quite sure when they crossed over into area of friendship, but in a relatively short amount of time, she'd become a constant in his life. He didn't have a lot of those.  
  
"Look, it's not what you think-"  
  
"Not what I think?" Haley looked up at him incredulously. "How could it possibly not be what I think? I saw what you did. I saw. "  
  
Nathan gazed down at her, the raw emotion shining through her big, round eyes and for the first time since Friday night, for some reason, he begin to feel like he had actually done something wrong. But he hadn't. He just needed to make her see that.  
  
"Yeah, but-"  
  
"There's no yeah, but's here, Nathan." Haley pushed back out of her chair and stood up so that he couldn't tower over her so completely, but was dismayed when he was still able to look down at her. Shaking that off, she continued, "Karen never did anything to you. Hell, Lucas never did anything to you."  
  
"Yeah, and I never did -"  
  
"And I'm not just one of those girls that you can just smile your famous smirk and flash your letterman jacket at. I'm not going to just brush things under the rug just so that I can be with you." Haley's cheeks flushed at the connotation behind the statement, but brushed away the idea as soon as it came. Her crush was hardly the issue. "You had your chance. you've had more than your chance, and you blew it. Find someone else to help you."  
  
Nathan could feel the frustration mount as she continued to not listen. She needed to listen to him. "Haley, would you just let me talk a minute? We're friends here, so-"  
  
"No."  
  
Haley broke in one last time, her jaw set and her tiny body rigid with the determination behind her words.  
  
"Lucas is my friend."  
  
For a moment, Haley could see the Nathan that she had spent the last month of mornings with in the surprise on his face, but she made herself look away. Dropping back into her chair, she refused to spare him another glance. She was done with Nathan Scott.  
  
Nathan couldn't believe that after everything, she would still throw Lucas in his face. His jaw clenched and his gaze hardened as he stared down at her. He got the feeling that he had been dismissed.  
  
Well, that was fine. If that's the way she wanted it to be, then that's the way it was. Turning on his heel, he strode out of the room, the door slamming in his wake.  
  
****************************  
  
Karen leaned against the counter and surveyed the large room. It had been two days, and still, it didn't make sense to her.  
  
This little café was hers and Lucas's livelihood, and the beauty had been ruined because one little boy had so much hate in him that he would take it away, and he would do it with a smile on his face.  
  
It didn't make sense.  
  
She'd seen Nathan at all the basketball games and she'd heard people all around town talk about him. He was a hero, just like his father, but he never seemed to have that innocence she remembered Dan possessing. The boy was just cold.  
  
Keith, Lucas, Haley, and her spent the entire weekend trying to clean up the mess that probably only took him a few minutes to create. It was going to take them weeks to recover, emotionally and financially. She didn't know that she would ever be able to look at the place the same again.  
  
The kids had just left for school and Keith for his job, and that left Karen alone to sweep up what was left of the broken tables and chairs before hauling it all off to the dump. Taking a deep sigh, she pushed away from the counter and ambled over to the garbage pile. The quicker she finished with the cleaning, the quicker she could assess the damages. She already knew that the state would be pressing no charges against Nathan, but after this and all he had done to her son, there was no way in hell she was letting it go.  
  
A knock at the door pulled Karen from her thoughts. She squared her shoulders as she stared at her visitor. "The door's open," she said, gesturing to the large hole left from the broken out window.  
  
Deb stepped into the room and scanned over the area before letting her gaze fall on Karen. She didn't quite know how to start or what to say to the other woman. She had been curious about her husband's high school sweetheart ever since she'd found out about Lucas, but she'd never known how to approach her. It'd seemed a couple of weeks ago like maybe they would have been able to form a friendship, but that probably ended the moment her son busted out the front glass.  
  
Shaking away the negative thoughts, Deb reminded herself that she was there for a reason. "Would you like some help?"  
  
"Yes," Karen answered. "But you're not really the one who should be helping, are you?"  
  
Deb froze at the accusation, but she knew that Karen had every right to be mad.  
  
It was just, when she thought of her son, she thought of the little black haired boy who begged her to take him to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when it first came out, or the kid that tried to convince her he was secretly a member of the VR Troopers. She remembered the smile he gave her when he got his first standard size basketball, his front teeth missing and shoelaces untied. She heard the crack in his voice as he went through puberty, pleading to not have to go underwear shopping with her.  
  
She didn't know this young man who never smiled and answered her every question with a smart assed reply. She didn't recognize him as the big shot basketball player who did all he could to shut his brother out of every play at every game. And she didn't understand this guy who could keep such a stoic expression after having wiped out someone's life.  
  
"It's funny. or maybe not so funny," Deb started, finally finding her voice. "How you can take a step back from your life, maybe just to take a small breather." She paused. "And then you get back, and you find that it's in shambles. That somebody took your world and tore it apart."  
  
Karen kept her gaze, but not quite knowing how to respond, remained silent.  
  
"I don't know my son."  
  
Again, Karen said nothing, and Deb had to blink back the tears as she tried to make some sort of connection. It would be so easy for Karen to turn away from her. She wasn't sure that if the roles were reversed, and she was in Karen's shoes, that she would still even be listening.  
  
"I don't want you to press charges."  
  
That broke Karen from her silence, and she scoffed. She thought she had seen some sincerity in Deb, but it was just like the Scotts to use emotion to manipulate.  
  
Turning away, Karen went back to the garbage pile.  
  
"Look," Deb continued, her voice rushed as she tried to hold onto the sympathy she'd seen in Karen's eyes. "I know that I have no right to ask you this, especially under the circumstances, but something has to happen with Nathan or he's just going to get worse. I need to get him back."  
  
Karen looked over her shoulder at the desperation on the blond woman's face.  
  
"And I want you to help me."  
  
**********************************  
  
"Dan?" Deb called out as she walked through the front door. She hung her coat up on the rack before heading toward his office.  
  
Dan looked up from the papers he was reading through as she came in and sat down at the chair in front of his desk. "I talked to Jeff Richards today, you know, the city prosecutor. They're going with the police chiefs report and have decided to not press charges."  
  
Deb let out a sigh of relief. "That's good news."  
  
"Yeah. That means all we have left to deal with is Karen." He looked back down at his papers. "I figured I'd just go talk to Keith tonight. He could probably talk her into settling."  
  
She stayed silent a moment, measuring her husband's words. First things first. "I hardly think that Karen is the only thing we have left to deal with in this situation, Dan."  
  
"I don't want to argue with you about this anymore," he grumbled, running a tired hand over his face. "Nathan doesn't deserve this kind of treatment from his mother."  
  
Deb's eyes widen as she regarded him, her expression appalled. "Nathan doesn't deserve this? You saw what he did to her café. He wrecked his girlfriend's car and then tried to pawn it off on Lucas. He stole a school bus." She nodded at Dan's surprised look. "Yeah. You can't honestly think that I didn't know about that."  
  
"Deb."  
  
She leaned forward in her chair to place her hands flat on his desk. "He's out of control, Dan. We need to do something."  
  
"He's a kid, Deb. I'm sure you did a fair amount of crazy things back in your day."  
  
Deb took a deep breath and realized she was going to have to switch tactics if she wanted him to stop making excuses for their son. "Okay. He's a kid, but he's a kid with a future. If he keeps this up, how long is it before the buzz gets out that he's a troublemaker? What are the scouts going to think of him then?  
  
Dan let her words sink in, and Deb held her breath, as it seemed that he might actually have heard her. "What do you want me to do about it?" he asked.  
  
"I want you to support me, to support Nathan."  
  
"What does that mean?"  
  
"I went to see Karen today," she answered, straightforward. "She's agreed to drop the charges, but. there are conditions."  
  
Dan stayed quiet for a moment before leaning across the desk toward her. "I'm listening. 


End file.
